As Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik seeks a sixth term, BJP gears up to spoil the party

Ahead of the 2024 state Assembly and the Lok Sabha elections, the Odisha Cabinet, chaired by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik, recently decided to implement the Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha programme in the financial year 2023–24. The government promised financial assistance of Rs 50 lakh to every panchayat under it.

The Cabinet’s decision to modify the existing ‘Ama Gaon Ama Vikas’ scheme to give it a new dimension and a new name did not go down well with the Opposition BJP and Congress.

Senior BJP leader and former president of the party’s state unit Sameer Mohanty said the state government had sanctioned around 3,24,523 projects under the ‘Ama Gaon Ama Vikas’ scheme, out of which 2,94,623 projects remained incomplete. He said that this shows that the plan has failed miserably.

Congress also attacked the BJD government and accused it of introducing the old scheme as new just to hoodwink the people ahead of the Assembly elections due in the state next year.

The state government claims that the Ama Odisha Nabin Odisha programme will enhance rural infrastructure, leading to accelerated development. The main objective of the scheme is to provide the missing link for existing small and essential projects and infrastructure development. Apart from this, there is also the empowerment of women and youth, bridging the significant gap in education, digital, and sports facilities.

The parties in Odisha are already gearing up for a showdown in the elections, and the latest war of words over the Naveen Patnaik government’s Cabinet decision is a result of this. 

Political analysts believe that before the 2024 LS polls, there will be a fierce fight between the BJD and BJP, wherein the BJD will be using the brand Naveen while the BJP will harp on the brand Modi to woo the voters.

It may be noted that Naveen Patnaik has had an uninterrupted 23-year stint as the chief minister of Odisha since March 2000 but is now facing anti-incumbency.

The Opposition is therefore accusing Naveen of trying to serve old wine in a new bottle. The BJP has accused the government of not being able to complete several projects from its previous schemes and has been claiming that since the old scheme launched just before the 2019 assembly elections failed, it has been re-launched with a new package to cheat the people.

Though the BJP and BJD have been rivals in the state, at the Centre the BJD has always tried to help the saffron party.

Naveen has always positioned himself as neutral between the BJP and the Congress. In the past, the BJD has supported the BJP-led NDA in Parliament on contentious issues like no-trust motions, often choosing to walk out.

Naveen did not attend the inauguration of the new Parliament building by PM Modi, but instead of boycotting the event like the other Opposition parties, he sent his 21 MPs to the ceremony. He even met PM Modi as a courtesy in May this year but announced later on that the BJD would contest the national elections independently, as has always been the case.

He even stayed away from the grand Opposition alliance even after Nitish Kumar met him in Bhubaneshwar while attempting to unite various Opposition parties.

In the past too, CM Naveen has successfully stayed clear of taking any ideological stance and has managed to have good terms with all the ruling governments, Congress and the BJP, at the Center. He has therefore always managed to get the most for his state by following this mantra.

However, this has not stopped his party from fighting against both the BJP and the Congress in his state.

As the state goes to polls in 2024, the BJP has already started its moves to take on CM Patnaik by preparing a comprehensive plan to confront the ruling BJD on various matters. These include addressing concerns such as the delays in rituals at the Puri Jagannath temple, the alleged disappearance of temple files, reported irregularities under the guise of the 5T initiative, inadequate healthcare provisions, and the ongoing border dispute with Andhra Pradesh.    

The BJP has declared its goal of achieving a ‘BJD-Free’ Odisha and its leaders have been talking about liberating the state from the alleged misrule of the BJD, which has governed Odisha since 2000 and has failed to deliver in all areas.

It may be noted here that the Saffron Party emerged as the second-largest party in Odisha after it won 23 out of 146 seats in the 2019 Assembly elections and got 32.5 per cent votes as against the ruling BJD’s 112 seats and 42.7 per cent vote share.

The fact that the BJD has never lost an election under Patnaik be it a local or the general election makes it all the more challenging for the BJP.  

According to media reports, to overcome the perceived anti-incumbency and counter the Opposition BJP in the upcoming 2024 LS elections, the BJD is trying to counter the BJP’s Hindutva agenda by emphasizing on “Jai Jagannath” slogan. With this aim, it even concluded an OBC (Other Backward Classes) survey wherein the State Commission for Backward Classes recorded educational, occupational and household data of OBC families. With this Odisha also became the fourth state to have conducted an OBC survey.

Conversely, the BJP is trying to disrupt the implementation of the BJD’s new strategy and is now concentrating on keeping the OBC card as a strategic advantage, hoping that it will be a game-changer for them in the forthcoming 2024 general elections.

Presently Odisha has quotas of 22.5 per cent, 16.25 per cent and 11.25 for SC, ST and OBC categories respectively. All political parties are keenly watching the latest OBC survey results as it is felt the reservation for the OBCs could be increased after the completion of the survey.

If this happens then the political scene will be different as over 50 per cent of Odisha’s population belongs to OBC. Political observers are of the view that to beat the anti-incumbency the Patnaik-led Odisha government might announce a special package for the category ahead of the next polls.

(Disclaimer: The views expressed in this article are those of the author alone. The opinions and facts in this article do not represent the stand of News9.)